Brius halts closure of 2 nursing homes

Brius Healthcare Services announced Monday that it will only be closing Pacific Rehabilitation and Wellness Center in Eureka at the end of this year. The Eureka and Seaview rehabilitation and wellness centers will remain open.
File photo — The Times-Standard

Two of the three Eureka nursing homes that were set to be closed by the end of the year will remain open, Brius Healthcare Services CEO Shlomo Rechnitz confirmed Monday.

The planned closure of the Pacific Rehabilitation and Wellness Center will still proceed, but Rechnitz said no patients will have to be relocated.

“As a result of this request, no patients will need to be transferred out of the community,” Rechnitz wrote in a statement on Monday afternoon. “All patients at Pacific Rehabilitation and Wellness Center will be offered relocation at our other four local skilled nursing facilities.”

Brius’ decision came as a surprise to local government and health care representatives, who had been working to find a solution to prevent the closures with Brius and its associated administrative company Rockport Healthcare Services over the past four months, but were unable to find any agreeable to all parties.

The most critical of Brius’ closure plans on Monday was North Coast state Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) who said the company had been using “bullying” tactics such as using the nursing homes as leverage to negotiate increases to their MediCal reimbursements.

“This has been a completely avoidable crisis brought on by a billion dollar corporation that has consistently put profits over people,” McGuire said in an interview with the Times-Standard. “From the beginning we have said that Rockport has not been losing money. When you dig into their financial statements, it showed that fact. Rockport’s closure plan was irresponsible, put hundreds of lives of patients at risk, and jeopardized the safety net of the greater Humboldt County healthy system.”

North Coast Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) said that while Rechnitz’s decision is encouraging, he does not believe this issue has been resolved “by any stretch of the imagination.”

“We’ll see where it goes,” Wood said. “At least it feels like for the folks in Eureka and Seaview that their families will know their loved ones will be in the facilities through the holidays.”

Rechnitz’s announcement was preceded by his company’s decision last week to cancel its contracts with the local MediCal provider Partnership HealthPlan of California, a move which has caused the provider to become concerned about future patient access.

Tough negotiations

The Eureka and Seaview rehabilitation and wellness centers were originally set to be closed by the end of December, but will now remain open as will Brius’ two other Humboldt County skilled nursing facilities — the Fortuna and Granada rehabilitation and wellness centers. Pacific Rehabilitation and Wellness Center is set to close by the end of the year, resulting in the loss of about 100 nursing home beds.

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Brius had announced in July that it intended to close some of its Humboldt County nursing homes due to being able to find enough health care workers and because of unsatisfactory MediCal reimbursements. The company had been hiring more costly traveling nurses to fill the staffing gaps, which the company states has led to a loss of over $5 million over the last two years.

Since the announcement, local health care, government and community officials have been meeting with Brius and Rockport to discuss possible solutions. Each side has been openly critical of the other. Rechnitz wrote in his statement today that the “critical participants” in these discussions were “not willing to do anything to solve these serious problems.”

“After speaking at length with the patients, families and staff throughout Humboldt County, we have decided that despite the enormous financial difficulty that we will sustain as a result, there is no way we can close these facilities,” Rechnitz wrote. “We won’t be a part of patients being forced to move 300 miles away simply because the system fails to appropriately pay for their healthcare.”

The day after their closure plans were approved by the state in late September, Brius and Rockport have been calling on Partnership HealthPlan of California to increase its reimbursement rates to prevent the closures.

McGuire said the state has already provided $2 million in reimbursements over the last two years to Brius’ three Eureka facilities set for closure.

“When Rockport tried one last time to negotiate a higher rate, the state told them very clearly that we can’t negotiate with an operation that has given formal notice that the doors will be closing,” McGuire said. “We can only negotiate with an active operator. We appreciate Rockport coming back to the reality that all of us have been in since this made-up crisis began.”

Rechnitz also announced Monday that he will be setting up a charity foundation in the county to help pay for the care and treatment of the elderly.

Contracts cancelled

Last week, Partnership HealthPlan received several letters from Brius stating the company will be cancelling its contract with the MediCal provider for all five of its Humboldt County nursing homes.

Area 1 Agency on Aging long-term care ombudsman Suzi Fregeau explained the fallout of this decision in an email to the Times-Standard:

“Existing residents will continue to be covered at existing daily rate, but each new admit still have to apply and if Brius isn’t willing to take the rate quoted, then the resident sits in limbo until the two entities can come to an agreement.”

Partnership HealthPlan Public Affairs Director Robert Layne said they will not be altering from their current reimbursements rates, which Brius have found unsatisfactory.

“Partnership will only be paying them the agreed upon amount,” Layne said. “We will not be doing special deals. It’s important to say that yes today is a success, but until Rockport rescinds these letters of cancellation we’re still concerned about (patient) access.”

McGuire and Layne questioned why Rockport and Brius would cancel its contracts with Partnership HealthPlan, which has paid reimbursement rates up to nearly 11 percent higher than the state’s rates last year, according to Partnership HealthPlan and state records. McGuire said that Brius’ and Rockport’s decision to cancel the contract actually limits their reimbursements to 2 percent above what the state would pay.

“If Rockport was negotiating with any other plan in the state, they would be getting the state rate,” Layne said. “We are going above and beyond what Rockport is required to get.”